Sleepless on the Enterprise
by stexgirl2000
Summary: Hoshi can't sleep.


Title: Sleepless on the Enterprise  
  
Author: Stexgirl2000  
  
Disclaimers: I don't own them, I get no money for them, and nothing that is Star Trek or Enterprise belongs to me. (Darn it!)  
  
Rating: G  
  
Category: Friendship, Romance  
  
Codes: R/S, P  
  
Spoilers: The Catwalk  
  
Summary: Hoshi can't sleep. ***  
  
Sleepless on the Enterprise  
  
For the third night in a row Hoshi couldn't sleep. She tried going to the gym, thinking that working out would make her tired. She tried her mother's old trick of warm milk with honey. No dice there. A warm shower didn't help, nor did reading old messages on her computer terminal or her linguistics journals. Still sleep would not come. Finally, she pulled out an old relaxation music chip that never had failed her before.  
  
This time it failed her.  
  
Hoshi couldn't understand why she was dealing with this bout of insomnia. She was happy to be back in her quarters, especially after eight days camping in the catwalk. On the one hand she was glad that she had coped well with being in the crowded space, while on the other, she would have preferred not to have once again been in a life and death situation because of hostile aliens. However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it wasn't the fact that they all could have died that was keeping her up. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what was.  
  
Pulling on some sweats, Hoshi decided to go see if Phlox could give her something that would help her sleep. She walked through the quiet corridors, waving or nodding her head at a couple of Gamma shift crew members going about their duties. Entering sickbay, she saw the Phlox was not alone. Crewman Tran was sitting on a bed, Phlox tending to a cut on her hand. Hoshi stood quietly, waiting for the doctor to finish.  
  
"There now Emily, this should do the trick. Next time be more careful with your wrenches and what not. I should think Commander Tucker wants his staff to refrain from bleeding on his warp coils. "  
  
He patted her on the shoulder and continued with, "Come back and let me check your hand tomorrow before you go on shift. But over all everything should be fine. Ah, Ensign Sato, how can I help you?" Phlox gave a large smile to Tran as she left and put his full attention onto Hoshi.  
  
"Doctor, I'm having trouble sleeping. This is the third night now and I'm beginning to feel terrible." Hoshi sat on the bed Tran had vacated.  
  
Phlox gave Hoshi a cheerful grin. He sat down opposite of her and said, "Well, I do have various medications to help you sleep in the short term. Perhaps you should first try to talk about whatever's bothering you so this won't be a long term problem. "  
  
Hoshi looked at him in frustration. "The problem is that I don't know what the problem is! I've tried everything I know to help me go to sleep. And no, it's not the fact that we were all cooped up for over a week or that we all most died again that's keeping me awake. I've factored those out already."  
  
"Hmmm." Phlox's face went from his usual cheerfulness to one that was speculative.  
  
"Tell me Hoshi, who did you bunk with while we were on the catwalk?"  
  
The question threw her off guard. She looked at him quizzically. "Doctor, I don't see what that has to do with my not sleeping."  
  
"Just humor me, please, Hoshi? Who did you bunk with?"  
  
Hoshi blew out a long breath in frustration. "I had the top bunk, Lieutenant Reed the lower, Commander Tucker was to the left of me and Ensign Mayweather was on the other side along with Ensign Nguyen. Why?"  
  
"Bear with me, please. Who did you socialize with the most? Talk to and spend most of your time with?"  
  
She shook her head and then leaned back on the bed. "Does it really matter? Can't you just give me a pill or something?"  
  
Phlox smiled and shook a finger at her. "Really, Ensign Sato, it amazes me that humans are so ready to just take a pill to solve their problems. I'll tell you what, answer a few more questions for me and if this does not help, I'll give you a sedative. "  
  
"All right. I mainly hung out with and talked to Trip, Travis and Malcolm, although Liz Terri and I also spent a bunch of time together. Do you need more?"  
  
The doctor raised his eyebrows at her and said, "Yes."  
  
"Mainly I talked with Malcolm, I mean his bunk was under mine and we talked about books, we talked about music, we talked about my work on the UT, we talked about my weapons and defense practice, we talked about his ideas for weapons and sensor upgrades, how a shower would be a good thing after several days, and we griped about the movies and the food and about how Trip and Travis were cheating at poker, and how we were sick of poker and....."  
  
Suddenly Hoshi stopped. Confusion, embarrassment, and then enlightenment filled her face. "Oh my God, I miss talking to Malcolm!"  
  
Phlox gave her the biggest grin she had ever seen on him. "And the Lieutenant misses talking to you. He was in here a half hour ago complaining that he too couldn't sleep. I suggest that you go and talk to him." With that he got up and made little shooing motions with his hands.  
  
In a daze, Hoshi walked out of sickbay. Her mind was racing so fast that she almost missed hearing Phlox's delighted chuckle as she left.  
  
Automatically her feet brought her to Malcolm's door. She stood in front of it for a good 30 seconds and as she raised her hand to push the chime, his door slid open.  
  
Malcolm Reed stared at her, struck absolutely dumb.  
  
Hoshi stared right back.  
  
"I couldn't sleep." they said simultaneously. Realizing what they had done, they also began to laugh at the same time. They stood there laughing and then stopped.  
  
"I missed talking to you, Hoshi," Malcolm said softly.  
  
"I did too. May I come in?" Malcolm silently stepped aside.  
  
As the door closed, Hoshi walked over to his bed and laid herself down. Malcolm looked at her in askance, but he didn't blush. Instead he came over and joined her, his body facing hers.  
  
"So, Ensign Sato, what shall we discuss," he said in a low tone. He let one hand go to the top of her head, letting the other to grasp one of hers.  
  
"Let's start with what happened when you, T'pol and the Captain were out in the main part of the ship while those aliens were on board. I never did get the whole story from you."  
  
"Well, there's not much to tell...."  
  
Soon they were asleep, cuddled in each other's arms. 


End file.
